Ron Smith: Alyson Bailes - Iceland

President Sandy Bannerman was delighted and honoured to welcome a Senior British Foreign Diplomat M/s Alyson Bailes, C.M.G., to last week's meeting of the Rotary Club.  M/s Bailes has had a lifetime career in the Diplomatic Service and she was attached to N.A.T.O. specialising in Security, Defence and Armaments.  She was also involved with the International Peace Institute in Stockholm, the Ambassodor to Finland and the British Consulate in Beijing as well as many other foreign posts.  Her talk was on Iceland, a country she fell in love with on a holiday and has lived there for 8 years near Reykjavick where she has house where she stays for half the year and spends the other half at her home in Selkirk.  She is a member of the Reykjavick Rotary Club and an associate member of the Selkirk Rotary Club.  She gave an excellent insight into Icelandic life in which she has become totally involved.  English is a common language mainly through the influence of TV programmes and she covered all the main aspects of life there from a social, political and cultural point of view.  The Icelanders are wary of becoming too dependent on other European countries as they are proud of their identity but, lately, they have been forming stronger trading ties with China.  They have to import half their food and commodities for their 320,000 population and fishing, energy and tourism feature prominently in their economy.  Alyson would thoroughly recommend Iceland as a holiday destination or longer visit and captivated the audience with her excellent, informative talk.  Ron Smith gave an appreciative vote of thanks on behalf of the members.